Life of the Dead
by VanGuard6
Summary: A rewrite of my previous story, after being off for so long, i hope you enjoy it and forgive me for grammatical mistake etc
1. Chapter 1

**LIFE of the Dead**

**The dead are coming back and attacking the living.**

**Those who are bitten or scratched die only to reborn as one of them. **

**They're blind but that doesn't mean they're weak.**

**They have enhanced hearing, smell and can charge at amazing speed when they've detected a potential prey.**

**Having survived the first week of this pandemic, we now seek shelter. **

**With the help of my friends, Rei, Saeko, Kohta, Saya, Shizuka, Alice and Zeke, we managed to flee the cities. **

**With the government slowly falling apart, and society now being hostile towards each other, we couldn't trust anyone but each other if we were to survive, and outlast this pandemic. **

**My name is Komuro Takashi**

**This is our story.**

_Prologue_

"_Ballroom, this is Legend 01, approaching Objective Haley over,"_ the pilot of the CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter said.

"_Ballroom copies Legend 01, you are cleared for landing," _Ballroom replied.

The pilot looks back at the 20 man team who were now on their feet waiting for the ramp to open, "10 seconds," he called out.

"Alright gentlemen, go to red," the commanding officer of the Rangers ordered as the entire team stood up.

"Ramp coming down," the co-pilot said as he flicked a switch which slowly opened the ramp door.

The moment the ramp fully opened, the rangers charged out, weapons at the ready.

"RPG!" suddenly one of them called out but it was too late as the rocket hit the cockpit immediately killing the pilots.

More RPGs were launched destroying another Chinook and killing everybody on board.

The rangers came under mortar and small arms fire.

"Get out of the open!" the leader of the ranger shouted as all of the split up losing 3 men in the process as they all scrambled into nearby buildings.

Some ducked behind bushes, climbed up trees and even use a dumpster as cover.

_End of Prologue._

000

Chapter 1

Light up the darkness.

With most of the electricity gone due to the EMP blast, Takashi and his group only hope of survival was to get to Okinawa.

They had heard this from Colonel Yamamoto when they were at the Shintoko elementary school prepping for evacuation.

However, things didn't go as plan as suddenly they were attacked not by the dead but by men.

Now they were being hunted.

"Who do you think those people were?" Takashi asked directing the question to no one.

Kohta just shrugged his shoulder, Saeko was quiet, Rei was helping Shizuka as the nurse took a round in her left shoulder when they were trying to escape, Saya was deep in thought.

"Okay, so what do we know about them so far?" Takashi asked a different question.

"Well, we know that they're using next generation military weapons, those soldiers at the school didn't stand a chance," Kohta said

Takashi nodded

As they slowly walked down the street trying to get as far away from the school as possible, a helicopter flew overhead.

The doors opened as ropes came down and men dressed in black military attire, armed to the teeth and wore gas mask which glowed blue at the lens roped down.

The group hid as the helicopter flew away after dropping the last man.

Saeko who was silent on her feet moved a little closer to where the groups of 12 heavily armed men were.

"Our objective is to erase any evidence that may lead to us, use of deadly force is authorized, eliminate threat with extreme prejudice," one of them spoke as the others nodded.

The one that spoke also said, "The Americans have sent in their military forces to search for survivors, we cannot let that happen, the corporation is depending on us and we cannot fail, we only have 48 hours before the corporation initiates Phase 3, so let's move.

000

Unit Name: AFO Hunter

Call sign: Gold Digger 01

C.O: Lt. Henry "Buster" McKenzie

Mission Objective: Classified

"Gentlemen, three minutes out," Pilot of the AC-130 cargo plane said.

The AFO team was being inserted into the city of via HALO jump, their leader Buster had a mission of his own which only two of his trusted knew of.

"Mask on," one of the team members said putting his mask on.

Standing up the 6 man team made sure everything was alright with their parachute as the ramp door open.

The green light came signaling for them to jump.

"Go, go, go," Buster said as his teammates jump.

Once the team was on the ground, Buster briefed on their mission, "Alright team we got ourselves a 48 hour window according to the Intel provided by Raven our little mole within the corporation," he said.

"48 hours till what Lt?" Kyle "Smoke" Jenkins asked.

Buster paused for a little while before answering, "Precision Tactical Nuclear Device," he answered.

The others slowly nodded, "So this is a suicide mission," one of the operators said.

"Afraid so," Buster replied.

"Listen 48 hours isn't a long time, so we save as many as we can and get the hell out of here before that nuke hits the city, okay," Buster tried to maintain moral in his team.

"You heard the man let's move," Jason "Beast" Murray said.

00

Bullets flew as survivors tried to run as the corporations cleanup crew A.K.A Reaper gunned them down one by one.

"_Ghost cut them off," _their leader Mr. Death ordered the sniper who was jumping on top of rooftops.

Ghost didn't answer and just shot the survivors that were too far with deadly accuracy.

"Sir i got a group breaking east," one of them said looking at the screen of the device strapped to his wrist.

"Wraith take care of that group," Mr. Death ordered the team's heavy gunner and demolitions expert who simply nodded and laughed as he went through an alleyway which would help him cut the survivors at front.

Setting up a landmine, he hid behind a car as he heard the footsteps.

Laughing he waited as the unaware group of 4 people with 3 adults and one kid ran directly at the land mine and exploded.

Wraith laughed as he saw the body parts after the dust settled before joining the rest of the group.

"Is that it?" Jigsaw their comms guy asked.

Mr. Death just shut him up and gave the following orders, "Jigsaw, you and Ghost are to head to midtown, head for the genesis corporation and erase all evidence, your stealth suits will help you sneak pass the 'defective products', "he instructed.

"The rest of us will continue on with our mop up," Mr. Death said.

000

The AFO team were slowly making their way down the blood stained streets of Tokonosu city, coming across a train tunnel one of them suggested.

"Think we should go down there, could be survivors?" he said.

Buster shook his head, "Negative on the tunnel Tombstone, we don't know what's down there," he said as Tombstone nodded.

Continuing on mission, the group came across a large group of idly standing dead.

Axe their tracker suggested taking a detour in which they had no choice but to agree.

Coming across a park, they stopped, "Alright we're gonna split into groups of three," Buster said.

"Alright, Axe, Tombstone you're with me, Smoke, Panther you two go with Beast," he said.

"Our objective remains the same only with a little improvement made to the team, we split up we can double our search grid and locate survivors faster got it," he said.

The others nodded.

"Let's move, Beast you take from West to North while i take from east to south," The commanding officer ordered.

"Once you're done, meet up at Objective Nevada and wait for evac," he finished his briefing.

Splitting up, the group went their separate ways, "You didn't tell them did you?" Tombstone asked.

Buster shook his head, "We're going have to move fast on this one," he said.

Tombstone and Axe looked puzzled, "What do you mean sir?" Axe asked.

"Our 48 hour window is slowly closing, I lied so that the team could have one less thing to worry about," Buster explained.

Axe decided to ask the question that was on his mind, "how do you know this sir?" he asked.

Buster looked at him and said, "Because Raven is under the guise of the corporation's director's assistant and my brother," he answered.

"How long do we got?" Tombstone asked.

Buster was silent so Tombstone asked again this time raising his voice a little, "With all due respect sir, but how long do we fucking got?" he asked slowly losing composure.

"When the clock strikes midnight Tokonosu will be completely sanitized and we have to be out of here by then, our 48 hours actually started yesterday, the cleanup crew has already been deployed and they are very deadly, well trained and armed with next generation weaponry," Buster came clean.

Tombstone wanted nothing more than to grab him by the vest and shout at him but decided against it, "Well what are we waiting for, Chinese new year, let's move, in 12 hours a nukes gonna reduce this city to nothing but one big ass crater I suggest we move and get our hands on that Intel huh," he said.

Axe nodded, "He has a point, and we'll only waste time if we argue amongst each other," he said.

Buster nodded as he and Axe and Tombstone headed straight for Midtown.

00

Takashi and his group were in shock at what Saeko told them.

"Are you sure that's what you heard?" Rei asked the purple haired girl who simply nodded.

"But there were children at the school that managed to escape, are they going to kill them too?" the ginger asked a different question

Alice was helping Saya tend to Shizuka-sensei's shoulder with Zeke while listening to the group in their discussion.

"Real question is what's going to happen to us in 48 hours and what did they mean by Phase 3," Kohta said.

Takashi turned to him and said, "I don't know either way we have to figure out a way to get out of this city before tomorrow," he said.

"What about those that managed to escape the school attack?" Rei asked.

Saya stood up after she was done bandaging Shizuka's shoulder, "There's nothing we can do for them without getting killed ourselves," she said.

"It's cold I know but let's face it, those people are dead anyway, without weapons and the necessary knowledge on **Them** they're better off dead than alive," she continued which made Rei stare at her with shock and thought, _'How could she say something like that.'_

"Saya's right Rei, one way or another it's all over for those people, so suggestions anyone on how to get out of this city?" Takashi asked.

"What about the harbor, we can use one of the boats from there to get to Okinawa," Rei suggested.

"Sounds easy but none of us know anything about sailing or even navigating," Takashi said.

"Airport," Kohta suggested.

"Baka it's too far and we'll never make it on foot, plus we're not even sure if there's anyone there all the planes must have left for Okinawa which happens to include the pilots," Saya said.

"Damn," Takashi cursed.

It was Saeko's turn now to suggest something, "I have a suggestion but you might not like it," she said.

The others looked as her as she explained.

"Are you crazy," Saya said a little too loud, "what makes you think that they're just going to let you on their helicopter without putting a bullet in your head?"

"Not even that, how are we going to go up against the cleanup crew with our weapons," Kohta said.

They all now turned to Takashi who had to make the decision on whose plan to go with.

'_Rei's plan seems reasonable but how are we even going to get to Okinawa, none of us have any experience on sailing, boy how i wish Hisashi was here since he knows everything there is to know about sailing, Kohta's plan is a little risky and Takagi-san's right we're never going to make it to the airport on foot we'll be caught out in the open with no cover and that cleanup crew will most definitely find us if not them then it might as well be THEM, Saeko's plan on the other seems bold, crazy and 6 other words which means anything but good,' _the spiky haired boy thought.

Scratching his head in frustration, "We'll go with Saeko's plan," he said not knowingly which caused the others to look at him in shock.

It took him a minute to realize what he had just said.

Saya approached him and gave him a hard right to the face, "If you want to get yourself killed then be my guest, I've made a promise to my parents before i left them and that is i would keep on living," she said tears starting to fall.

Takashi rubbed his cheek as the pain slowly started to fade.

Kohta embraced the pink haired girl and started to run his hands up down her back slowly to calm the crying girl down.

"What's do you have in mind Takashi?' he asked.

Takashi nodded and shared his plan.

000

"My patience is wearing thin General when can we send in the rangers?" A man in a suit spoke through a VTC transmission.

An African American stood next to an Elderly man, both dressed in military attire, "Mr. Secretary, we've deployed our AFO team and with the help of the Japanese we can take back the city with minimal casualties and the AFO team is being led by one of our best operative," the elderly man said.

"Well I appreciate the Japanese wanting to contribute but you've got two battalions ready to bring the pain so let's send them in," The one known as Mr. Secretary said.

The African American had enough as he stepped into view of the screen, "Mr. Secretary with all due respect the AFO team and the SDF are very capable of handling the situation and not to mention that James Masters is leading the SDF special ops team on the ground, you send in those ranger and all you're doing is inviting another massacre while you sit in your well guarded office, drinking your coffee and acting all high and mighty," he released all his anger out.

The elderly general immediately got in between, "That's enough Jimmy, don't make this any worse than it already is," he said trying to calm the angry man down.

"Listen boy, I don't need you to tell me how to do my job, and General you have 24 hours to send in those rangers or the next thing you only have to worry about is finding a still functioning old folks home," the secretary of defense said before signing out.

The elderly general let out a sigh as he took a seat.

"General, your seriously not thinking about sending the rangers are you?' Jimmy asked.

The general shook his head, "I don't know Colonel, I really don't know all I can hope now is good news from the AFO team," he said.

"Colonel," the general said, "I believe this is the first time I called you colonel instead of Jimmy."

The general looked at the colonel that stood before him, "I've never thought of you as a Colonel but as my son and I thought that maybe one day you might take my place," he said.

The colonel looked at him, "What are you saying sir?" he asked.

"I'm getting old Jimmy, sooner or later I must join my family and my ancestors in heaven and let you take over," he said with a smile.

"But-"before the colonel could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by a radio transmission from the SDF team.

00

A gun fight ensued as the dead drew closer being attracted to sound like a moth to the flame.

4 of SDF spec ops teams 3 were currently engaged with two members of Reaper.

"I take high ground," Ghost said with a Russian accent.

Jigsaw provided cover with his Silenced H&K G36 rifle, equipped with laser sight, grenade launcher, a motion tracker and high capacity magazine.

"Man down," one of the team 3 operators said after watching the radioman who was attempting to contact _Ballroom_ shot in the head.

'_Command Accepted, Stealth mode activated,' _the A.I of the Ghost stealth suit said as he turned invisible.

Pulling out his knife as snuck up two unaware team 3 members and made quick work of them, the first one he killed by stabbing him in through the back of the head, while the second one he killed by breaking his forearm and using the bone protruding out of it to stab him in the heart.

The Russian master assassin, former KGB agent and Spetnaz soldier and mercenary made his third kill by pulling the pin on the grenade belt of the SDF soldier that was currently engaging Jigsaw without him knowing it thus blew him into bits.

There was a reason why they called Peder Kamarov a Ghost, born in Russia, at the age of 8 his father a former Spetnaz and KGB agent threw him into the wilderness and told him that if he wanted to get home he'd have to prove to him that he deserve the life that was granted to him by his mother.

Peder survived, on his first night he had made his mark when he single handedly killed and mutilated four Russian mobsters who had just buried the body of man that owed them, his second night, he killed and decapitated a Tiger and ate it's flesh and the following day he returned by sneaking into the back of a pickup truck, bringing with him the trophies of his kill and showed them to his father.

His mother saw nothing but a monster in the eyes of Peder when he returned, driven by fear and grief, she took her own life by drinking a cup of cyanide laced tea.

His father was filled with pride and began training him.

When his father enlists him into the military he had out performed every recruit within his regiment.

Peder gave no equal, showed no mercy on the battlefield and was made the leader of Spetnaz alpha unit before being recruited by the KGB.

Over the years he had been credited with 200 assassinations.

The only thing Ghost ever longed for is a worthy opponent, someone to match his skills from hand to hand combat, to a knife combat and a gun fight.

"Give me a real fight," He said to himself as he and Jigsaw made their way towards the Genesis Japan Corp.


	2. Chapter 2: Wolverines

Chapter 2: Wolverines

"_Satoshi come in, Satoshi can you hear me, *Static* Satoshi come in goddamn it," _A man wearing an eye patch tried to contact his 4 man recon team which he had sent to link up with the Americans while he and the rest would secure an OP.

'_Something's not right' _the man thought to himself as he had tried to contact them for the past half an hour.

Thinking for a while he then called out two of his fastest runners, "Noburo, Yukio," then gave them their orders.

"I need you two to go check on Satoshi and his team, report back to me be it good news or bad I don't care, just tell what's keeping them from answering their radio got it," he instructed as both runners nodded their heads.

As the runners left, he turned to the rest of a team, "Alright, it looks like we're going to have to let both Noburo and Yukio meet up with the Americans meanwhile our objective is to secure an LZ so Ballroom can send in a chopper for exfil, I want silences only, and don't go weapons hot at the first sign of trouble, remember these things have a high sense of hearing which means the slightest noise made is already the dinner bell ringing, we move fast, and we move with purpose, survivors are depending on us so let's not disappoint, got it," he said.

"Sir Yes sir," they all said in unison.

00

Meanwhile the Reapers were chasing down two cops who had managed to escape after witnessing them killing survivors who were hiding at the police station.

"Shit," Mr. Death cursed as he fired a burst but missed the cops while coming out of an alleyway.

Looking at the roof to see one of the Reaper's running on the roofs he ordered, "Viper take'em out," as the rooftop jumper stopped and fire an accurate shot from his AR-15 sniper which hit the back of one of the police officers.

"Wraith cut them off," Mr. Death ordered.

Laughing the demolitions expert set up a laser triggered landmine which means of someone was to touch the laser, the bomb blows.

As the other officer left his wounded partner on the ground, he was unaware of the bomb until it was too late.

The bomb exploded taking with it two cars and the officer, while the other tried to get back up staggering as he does.

Monk, the knife expert of Reaper took a swing at the other officer with his machete but misses him by a couple inches when the police officer saw it coming and dodged it and continued to run.

The sound of the gun fire caught the attention of Smoke, Panther and Beast who were 3 blocks from where the Reapers were.

"Survivors" Smoke said.

The police officer took a shortcut through a store, coming out of the back door he ran till he came to a junction.

Not knowing where to run, he thought he'd rather bleed out than get killed by the Reapers who were hot on his heels.

Taking a left, he came to a street that was blocked by dozens of cars but that didn't stop him as he climbed on top of the cars and jumped from car to car.

The Spec ops team was closing in on where the shots were coming from and also came to the car blocked street and saw the police officer who was running towards them.

"Help!" the police officer cried out at seeing the spec ops team before a bullet went through his head.

The Reapers came into view of the three, "Shit," Panther thought looking at the 10 individuals in black, wearing gas mask that glowed blue at the lens.

Mr. Death looked at the 3 that stood before him, "Kill them," he ordered.

A gunfight ensued between the three spec ops operatives against the corporation's elite.

"Who the hell are these guys?" Smoke shouted taking cover behind a truck.

Beast just smiled, "Let me ask them," he said before firing at them with his M4 which hit Wraith in the vest.

"Son of a bitch," Wraith cursed as Venom the team doctor and virologist checked on him.

Pulling out a grenade, "Right back at you," he said pulling the pin before tossing the explosive object at the 3.

The grenade landed under the car where Panther was taking cover and firing from but didn't go off.

"Sir, we got a S.I closing in," Venom reported to Mr. Death when the device on his wrist that helped him tracked down infected with a rare type of mutation was in range.

Mr. Death nodded as he continued firing at the Spec Ops team who seem to have them pinned down and not the other way around.

"Scarecrow, mark their position with a pheromone," Mr. Death shouted.

Scarecrow pulled out a smoke grenade with the Initials RP on it, pulling the pin he was about to throw it when Axe shot him through the left lens killing him immediately and dropping the grenade on his position.

The bomb started to spin as red smoke came out.

One of the Reapers was about to fire at Axe when a tongue wrapped around his neck and pulled him away.

"S.I sir," Venom shouted as he fired at the rooftops.

"AAAHHHH!" another Reaper member screamed as he is pulled under the car by an unseen enemy.

The Reapers now focused their attention on the Special Infected or S.I's who had dragged and killed two of their members.

"I can't see," Wraith said as the red pheromone smoke blinded him.

3 man like figures jumped from roof to roof pulling another reaper member.

One the ground another crawled on all four, sharp teeth, frog like tongue only pointy, clawed hands and very acute sense of smell, it looked like a man but it moved like an animal.

They were the product of the infection.

"Fall back, fall back," Mr. Death ordered as the rest of the Reapers begin running into an alley and away from the area where they had lost 4 of their own.

Mr. Death looked back at the 3 spec ops that now had their focuses on the SI's, "This isn't over, not by a long shot," he declared before falling back.

00

"The hell are those things?" Smoke shouted as he saw them feeding on the Reapers they killed.

Panther instead of answering just shot at them but they were too fast.

Beast managed to wound one, as the other SI's began to leave the area bringing the bodies of the dead Reapers with them.

"I don't now but I got a feeling that not the last we've seen of them," Beast said lowering his weapon.

"Gollum," Axe said which caused the other two operatives to look at him.

Panther knew what they were going to ask and explained, "We should call them gollums, I mean it is better than what those people called SI's and plus they move like that character from Lord of the Rings."

Smoke nodded his head, "Gollums, I like that," he said.

Beast agreed, "At least I know what I'm shooting at right," he said.

000

Somewhere within a building, Mr. Death was reporting to the Director of the Company.

"_Reaper, what is the status of the mission?" _the director asked.

Mr. Death hesitated before answering, "_Everything is going as planned but we've suffered casualties," _he said.

"_How many?" _the director demanded to know.

Hesitating again, _"One at the hands of the American Spec Ops team, three more at the hands of the S.I's,"_ he said.

There was anger in the directors voice, "_And did the Americans see it?" _he asked.

"_I'm not sure," _Mr. Death said, _"We were engaged in a firefight with the Americans when they attacked." _

"_That is unacceptable, unacceptable, we cannot allow the Americans to get their hands on even one of those creatures, if they do then they could trace it back to us," _the director said getting angrier and angrier by the second.

"_Make sure that the Americans do not get their hands on the creature or the information at the Japanese Gen. Corp. branch," the director said._

Nodding, "I'll make sure that they don't director," Mr. Death trying to reassure their already angry employer.

000

Takashi and his group made their way out into the open as one of the Corporation's Uh-60 black hawk helicopter flew overhead.

"Let's follow it," he said as the others nodded.

Suddenly out of nowhere a HumVee pulls up right in front of them, "You there halt," one of the soldiers said coming.

He had a C.I.R.A.S vest on, black military attire, armed with a H&K UMP submachine gun equipped with a flashlight, laser sight and high capacity mag, and an Beretta 92fs but instead of a gas mask, he wore a balaclava.

"Hands where I can see them," he shouted.

Keying in his throat mic, _"Base Plate, Cobra 01, I've got intruders at sector 12 over," _he said his Beretta pointed at Takashi and the group.

"_Roger Cobra 01, you are allowed to terminate," _Base plate responded.

Chuckling, he holstered his sidearm and pulled out his UMP, "What a shame, I would've made that blonde bimbo my bitch but orders are orders," he said chambering a round.

"Nothing personal, it's just busi-"the guard never got a chance to finish his sentence as a bullet went through the side of his head.

4 men one of them wearing an eye patch, dressed in olive drab military attire, armed with m4's, H&K USP pistols, grenades, knives.

"Lt Get a load of this," one of them said as he searched the dead body of the guard.

Messy hair, crimson red eyes, medium built, about 20 years old, unlike the others he wore a black t-shirt and his vest over it, and instead of an m4 he carried an AK-47.

"Jesus, kids," the lieutenant said seeing Takashi and his group.

"Nice shot by the way Akira," he complimented the young man who simply nodded.

Standing in front of the teens, "Are you okay?" the man with the eye patch asked.

Takashi simply nodded.

"Name's James Masters, kid and I believe this is the part where you say thank you," James said.

Nodding again, "Sorry, thank you sir, my name's Komuro Takashi," the brown haired boy introduced himself.

James knew the boy was just getting over the initial shock when the guard was going to kill them.

"Sir, Noburo and Yukio have made contact with the Americans," a member of James team said.

James nodded, "Any news on Satoshi and his team yet?" he asked.

Kenji shook his head, "No sir," he said.

"Alright," James said, "Tell them we're setting an OP at the following coordinates," he instructed as he pulled out a pen and a piece of paper from his vest pocket and wrote the coordinates on it before handing it to Kenji.

Kenji nodded and took the paper and began relaying the coordinates to Noburo and Yukio.

000

On Okinawa, General Avery Reigart and Colonel James "Jimmy" Rodway were waiting for some good news that would help them delay the secretary from forcing them to send in the rangers.

"Sir, Gold digger 01 is checking in," one of the technicians called out.

Both the General and Colonel stood up from their seats, "God please give me some good news," Reigart said.

"_Ballroom, Gold Digger 01 we are Snake Eyes,"_ the AFO team used the code as a way to say they've linked up with the SDF team.

"_Roger Gold Digger 01, you have Snake Eyes,"_ the technician answered.

The general and the colonel nodded at each other as they decided to contact the Secretary through VTC.

It was a while until communication could finally be established, "General I hope you have some good news for me," the secretary said seemingly forgot about the incident that took place earlier.

"We do sir, with the help of the Japanese we've managed to locate survivors and are currently waiting for them to set up an LZ for evac," Colonel Rodway said.

The secretary nodded, "Good then let's send in the rangers," he said.

It was the General Reigarts turn to talk now, "Mr. Secretary I don't see the need to send in the ranger, with the help of the Japanese surely we can locate more survivors even without the help of the rangers," he said.

"General, I stationed those rangers in Japan for a reason and now I am ordering you to send them in, let's get them into the fight," the secretary said.

Colonel Rodway stepped in, "Sir I strongly advice against that, the AFO team are very capable and with-"before he could finish his sentence the secretary cut him off.

"Very capable of handling the situation I know, but to be honest I don't trust them and with all due respect I don't think they can handle the situation," the secretary said and began saying some critical things about the AFO team how they were a bunch of undisciplined cowboys and the SDF being rookies.

"Now general for the last time, send in the rangers or I will give the order myself," the secretary said.

The General stood there for a while, "No," he said as he signaled the technician to shut the VTC off.

The P.A system at the base came to life, "Attention Rangers General Reigart and Colonel Rodway are no longer in charge, override order 7 Alpha 1-1, Rangers your orders are to enter the city of Tokonosu and reclaim it, and search for survivors," the voice of the secretary spoke.

"Keller, cut the signal," Colonel Rodway ordered the technician.

"Override denied," the words appeared on the screen, "I can't sir he's locked us out of the system," the technician said.

The colonel quickly ran out to the tarmac where the Chinooks are taking off, "Don't let those Chinooks take off!" he shouted but it was too late the Chinooks were now in the air and on their way to Tokonosu.

000

"I'm sorry General Reigart but you left me no choice," the secretary spoke through VTC as the Colonel came in.

The General gave him a look, "You're gonna regret this you son of a bitch," the old man said as he told the technician to pull the plug on the VTC.

Just as the VTC was shut off, the colonel asked the general, "What now sir?" he asked.

"Contact James Masters and the AFO team, tell them things are about to get worst," the general said as he entered his office and sat down.

000

The Chinooks were 15 minutes away from the Tokonosu.

Meanwhile, on Tokonosu the genesis corporation mercenaries were setting up their defense.

They had caught the flight of 4 Chinooks on radar and are now waiting for them.

00

"_Liberator 2-1 this is Ballroom do you copy over, I say again, Liberator 2-1 this is Ballroom do you copy over," _the technicians began contacting the SDF first before contacting the AFO team.

"_Roger Ballroom Liberator 2-1 copies," _Kenji answered as Ballroom informed them about the situation.

Kenji immediately ran to James and told him, "What is the secretary thinking, he's 100 000 miles away and he's calling an audible, contact the AFO team and-" before James could finish Kenji told him that Ballroom is doing that right now.

"What's wrong James-san?" Takashi asked.

James looked at the boy and said, "All Hell's broken loose kid, All Hell's broken loose."

"We got to warn those Chinooks to stay out of Japan or else," Kenji said.

James was deep in thought, _'Why would the secretary send them in knowing we have located survivors,' _he thought but was broken as an explosion sounded in the distance.

"God help us all," he said.


	3. Chapter 3: Consider Yourself Expended

Chapter 3: Consider Yourself Expended

Genesis Corporation

"Director Winters, I think there's something you should see," a man dressed in a suit holding a tablet said.

The other man known as Director Winters nodded as his head to the other guy to show him what was it that he needed to see.

Pressing touching the screen on his tablet, he showed the director on the large screen in his office a satellite imagery showing the Chinooks carrying the Rangers were nearing Tokonosu.

"It appears that my predictions were right, even with their special forces on the ground the secretary would still send in the rest of their armed forces," he said chuckling.

Looking at his assistant, "Tell our men on the ground, take no prisoners," he said.

The assistant looked at the director, "Do we tell them about phase 03 sir?" he asked.

"No," the director answered, "I wouldn't bother; they're assets Desmond, expendable assets, consider them expended."

Nodding, he walked out of the director's office to inform the ground forces on Tokonosu.

000

"Thank you for flying Ranger airlines," the leader of one of the ranger team said, "I'll be your host/ team leader also known as first on and last off."

Patting the shoulder of another ranger who was excited and combat ready and said, "Let's do this."

"Today we'll be serving rounds of 5.56, followed by our main course, "All you can eat zombie," he said before taking a seat.

"_Ballroom, this is Legend 01, approaching objective Haley over,"_ the pilot of the Ch-47 Chinook transport helicopter said.

"_Ballroom copies Legend 01, you are cleared for landing," _Ballroom replied.

The pilot looks back at the 20 men ranger team who were now on their feet and waiting for the ramp to open, "10 seconds," he called.

"Alright gentlemen, go to red," the C.O said.

"Ramp coming down," the co-pilot said flicking a switch which lowered the ramp.

They landed in an open area large enough for the Chinooks within midtown.

The moment the ramp fully opened, the rangers charged out assuming defensive position.

"RPG!" suddenly one of the rangers called out but it was too late for the as the rocket hit the cockpit killing the pilots, crew chiefs and destroying the helicopter whose explosion took with it 4 of the rangers who were still inside.

More RPGs were launched, destroying another Chinook that was about to land killing everybody on board as its ramp was already open, those who didn't die in the explosions ditched and fell to their deaths.

The rangers came under mortar and small arms fire.

"Get out of the open!" Sergeant Patterson ordered the rangers as 2 from his chalk got hit by mortars one of the being the radioman.

The rest of the Chinooks carrying 2nd battalion and the other half of 1st battalion retreated as the LZ was too hot.

"_Ballroom, LZ is cherry I say again LZ is cherry, we are RTB,"_ one of the pilots said as an RPG took out another bird.

The Rangers were already on the ground, scattered some in groups.

Some ducked behind bushes, climbed up trees and even used a dumpster for cover.

"Sir we got to get out of here," one of the rangers said.

Captain Dietrich Williams tried to assess the situation.

'_The small arms fire are coming from the second floor of the buildings, while the mortars are little hard to find,' _he thought.

Sergeant Ramirez the team's sharpshooter was helping the medic bandage the wounded leg of his friend Schmidt.

"Sir the men are being pinned down," Private Caparzo shouted as he shot the enemy on the second floor.

Sergeant Horvath, Private Reiben, Corporal Upham and Sergeant Hill and a couple others were taking cover between the buildings but can't move due to heavy MG fire coming from the third floor which they can't get a shot of.

Dietrich saw this and ordered Ramirez to take out the machine gun while the others would provide suppressing fire so that the Sergeant and his men can get to them.

"On 3, Ready, 1, 2, 3," the Capt. shouted as he, Private Caparzo, Weller, Schmidt and Rice provided suppressive fire while Ramirez took out the MG.

Sergeant Horvath and his men saw this as an opportunity and took it, running out into the open and towards where Dietrich was.

Horvath lost 2 men while running across the field, "Look who showed up," Dietrich said as a way of greeting Horvath and his men.

Now there were 28 of them, "Captain Williams we got to move or we going to get pin down," Horvath said.

"We're moving as fast as we can, you let me do my job and you do yours sir," Williams said.

Another MG fired at them hitting Private Miller in the chest.

"Miller stay down, Medic," Miller's best friend Wade applied pressure on the wound and called the medic.

Ramirez knew if they didn't move immediately they were going to die, _"Captain Williams, I'll take care of the threat at the window, we'll rally point at the grey building coming through captain," _he said.

"_Sergeant," _he tried to hail him through radio but didn't get through.

Getting out of cover, "Cover me!" he shouted as the others covered him while he threw a grenade.

The grenade exploded killing the machine gunner, "Let's go, let's go," he said as the rangers followed him into the grey building he told the captain about.

Wade and the medic helped Miller, while Schmidt limped.

"What the fuck are you doing out there?" Captain Miller shouted at Ramirez.

"Saving the lives of the men," Ramirez said as he began tending to the wounded with the medic.

Horvath who was covering the doorway with two of his men saw the dead in the distance coming having been drawn by the firefight.

Slowly the shooting died down as the enemy fall back.

000

Takashi and his group who were now traveling with the SDF as he kept wondering what did James meant by all hell has broken loose until he saw a flight of 8 maybe 7 Chinooks.

"It looks like they've inserted the rangers and are now returning to base," Kenji said.

Takashi looked on as the choppers slowly disappeared into the horizon.

"Let's keep moving, we got to secure an LZ and get these civilians out of here," James ordered.

Out of nowhere a long tongue wrapped around Alice's waist and was about to pull her away if not for Saeko with one quick strike cut the tongue off.

The creature whose tongue had been cut off jumped from the rooftop of the house it was perched on and was about to pounce on Saeko out of nowhere a single gunshot is heard and the creature fell to the ground in front of Saeko, it's blood staining the boots she wore, its twitching was put to a stop with one slash from the purple haired swordswoman's blade.

"Who fired?" James asked.

"Not me, I'm jammed," Akira said.

The others shook their heads that it wasn't them.

"Well if it ain't you guys then who" James asked.

"That'll be me," A voice said as three figures approached where the group was standing.

The approaching figures came into view to reveal Tombstone, Buster and Axe, the three members of AFO Hunter.

"Miss, I believe this is the part where you say thank you," Axe said winking at Saeko who moved a closer to Takashi.

Putting his arms around her, Rei couldn't help but feel jealous at the sight of Takashi and Saeko.  
The she had another thought, _'What goes around comes around Rei,' _she thought as she remembered how she used to treat Takashi after they broke up.

"Wait, where's Noburo and Yukio?" James asked no one particular.

Axe shrugged his shoulder since he didn't know who James was talking about.

"They're with three of our guys, they're safe," Buster said.

James nodded, "You guys split up to expand your search grid?" he asked.

Buster nodded.

"Names Henry McKenzie call me Buster or Lt, this is Gabriel Axel also known as Axe and the one with the war paint and beanie is Mark Tombs also known as Tombstone, we're the AFO team sent to assist you guys," Buster said after introducing him and his team.

"Lieutenant James Masters and this is my team, we've lost contact with 4 of our men, you wouldn't happen to run into them did you?" he asked hoping they had news on Satoshi and his team.

Buster shook his head, "No, we were on our way to midtown when we saw you guys and whatever that thing is," he said pointing at the now dead S.I on the ground with his weapon.

"I'll see if I can get Ballroom to send a UAV to locate them," Buster said.

James nodded, "Appreciate the help," he said as a way of thanking others.

From afar two figures watch as the SDF and AFO team converse.

Ghost and Jigsaw had followed the AFO team, "Do we engage?" Jigsaw asked.

Ghost shook his head no, "Not yet, we wait for perfect opportunity," he said feeling as if he had already found his worthy opponent, his cold eyes looking at James.

000

"Look out behind you," Smoke shouted as a Gollum tried to slash Noburo from behind.

Luckily for the SDF operative, he was much faster and was able to duck the claws which would have been the death of him and let Smoke shoot it.

"One down," Smoke said as he helped Noburo back on his feet.

Panther and Beast were engaging those on the rooftops who didn't seem interested in attacking them.

Yukio was using his dual USP holding the dead back who were also in the same place as they and the Gollum's were.

"Grenade out," Panther shouted as he threw a grenade which landed between a large group of the dead and exploded.

Exclaiming in excitement, they held their ground when something caught their attention.

The dead and the gollums now just stood in one place, not moving.

"What's going on?" Noburo whispered as Smoke shrugged his shoulder.

Suddenly they began moving away, all headed in the same direction with the exception of the Gollums who seemed to shriek before leaving jumping from rooftop to rooftop in the opposite direction of where the dead were headed.

"It's a trap," Panther said, "They're trying to draw us in."

Beast was curious but he didn't let it get the best of him, "Come on, we got to regroup with the others, there aren't any survivors in this area not with that amount of dead," he said as the others nodded.

The 5 individuals decided head south where the others were.

"That was weird, I mean a few minutes ago we were fighting for our lives and now we're casually walking to regroup with the rest of our team," Panther said.

"And your point is?" Beast asked.

"What the fuck was that about?" Panther said.

Beast just shrugged his shoulder, "I have no idea P, I have no idea," he said reloading his m4.

Little did they know that the Reapers were following them from a distance with Mr. Death hell bent on killing the three that had humiliated him by making him retreat during their first encounter.

"This time, this time for sure," he said to himself as he fire a tracking chip onto Smoke's back.

00

"Alright, this place looks good enough for pick up," James said, "Kenji, get Ballroom on the horn and tell them to send a chopper to pick up the civilians," he ordered.

They were in park with an open field big enough for one Chinook to land.

"Akira, pop smoke and when the chopper get here, I need you to make sure that they get back to Okinawa," the eye patched man said.

Akira nodded.

"_Ballroom this is Liberator 2-5 requesting pickup for civilians over," _ Kenji said.

"_I say again, this is Liberator 2-5 requesting pickup for civilians over," _the radio operator repeated and this time Ballroom replied.

"_Roger Liberator 2-5, just sit tight, chopper is 15 minutes away," _Ballroom said.

"_Roger Ballroom, Liberator 2-5 solid copy, out," _Kenji said.

He reported to James who nodded his head as he and Buster discussed their next course of action.

"Oh great, no water," Akira grunted as he realize his can tin is empty.

'_Shouldn't have drunk so much," _he thought bitterly to himself as he waited on the chopper.

"Here," a female voice spoke.

Looking up Akira felt a feeling he couldn't describe, there standing before him was Miyamoto Rei handing him a bottle of water.

"T-thank you," he stuttered.

Rei giggled at his reaction, "You're welcome, I'm Rei," she introduced herself, "And you are?" the ginger asked.

"Akira," the messy black haired boy said, "Akira Hibiki."

Rei turned to leave, "It looks like it's going to be a hot day," Akira said.

"Excuse me," Rei exclaimed.

Akira realized what he had said and quickly came up with an explanation, "I was just thinking about that earlier, the hot thing," he said.

Rei smiled, more of an awkward smile, "Well, if you have anything else about the weather, I'll be with my group," she said.

Akira nodded and as soon as she was with her group, the boy started to berate himself, "Stupid, stupid, hot day, you dumbass," he said.

James who witnessed the entire thing approached him, "Boy, you've been killing zombies and you can't even talk to a girl," he teased.

Akira blushed, "You got me sir, you got me good," he said opening the bottle cap and drinking half the contents.

Even though James saw Akira as his son, he still had to let the boy settle his own affairs.

"I'll leave you to your thoughts, Romeo," James said ruffling the boy's hair.

Suddenly James stop in his tracks, "Incoming," he shouted before diving for cover.

Ghost who had launched the grenade with an m203 grenade launcher charged directly at James while Jigsaw engaged the others.

James saw it coming and pulled out his knife.

Both knives made contact.

"Lt!" Akira screamed as Jigsaw shot at him.

Both James and Ghost were locked in combat, blocking every attempt at a stab from the other person.

Ghost laughed as he had finally found his match with many of his jabs, kicks and stabs were blocked.

A roundhouse kick caught him and Ghost was at disbelief, never before has anyone landed a single punch let alone a kick.

"Impressive comrade," he said recovering from the kick.

Both men stared down each other, "Who are you?" James asked never breaking eye contact.

"Peder Kamarov, born 6th June 1975," he said as he too never breaking eye contact with James.

James could see through that mask that this guy was tough, the way he moved, his aggressiveness, his ferocity, deadly, that's what he thought.

"No knives, I kill you with fist," Peder said as he threw his knife to the side but not before breaking it in two.

This man wanted a fair fight, so James was going to give him one, throwing his knife to the side; both men unclipped the holster that was attached to their tactical belt.

"Take of your mask, I want to see your face," James said.

Slowly Peder removed his helmet dropping it to the ground, followed by the mask which made a hissing sound when he pressed a button on the side which turned off the blue glow.

Dropping the helmet to the ground revealing a man with black hair cut into crew cut, scar up his left cheek and cold brown eyes which showed no absences of malice, "As you wish," he said in Russian.

James tried going for the roundhouse but Ghost caught his leg and turned him 360 landing the one eyed man hard on his back.

Ghost tried end the duel early by going for a killing stomp to the head but James dodged it.

Freeing his leg, James kicked Ghost in the chest sending the Russian assassin reeling back before jump kicking back on his feet.

A hard right but Ghost blocked it with his forearm before double kicking James in the chest performing a back flip at the same time.

It was very hard the kick as James coughed a little blood before recovering, Ghost started to take of his body armor, "Take of your armor, I want you to feel this," he said as James nodded and took of his armor.

Left, right, knee to the gut, all were blocked by Ghost.

An elbow caught James in his left cheek sending the man to the ground.

Ghost began to chuckle, "It seems my worthy opponent isn't so worthy after all," he said licking his bloody knuckles.

Meanwhile, Akira was trying to get a shot at Jigsaw but he couldn't find him till he felt a barrel pressed to his head as the reaper member seemingly appeared out of thin air, "Don't take another step," the corporation's hired gun said.

"AKIRA!" Rei screamed seeing the position Akira was in.

"Drop the gun, or I drop you," Jigsaw said.

The others helplessly watched.

Akira dropped his AK and with one quick move hit Jigsaw in the throat causing the man to reel backward and giving the boy enough time to pull out his sidearm and shoot the reaper twice in the head.

Ghost turned to see the body of Jigsaw lying down on the ground only to have a roundhouse punch connect to his left cheek followed by an uppercut and before he realized it was locked in a cross arm breaker.

It was unbelievable, to taste the bitter taste of defeat as his records of no defeats went up in smoke, the man no other choice but to surrender, he couldn't activate his stealth suit because it was one of the many things he removed alongside his vest and weapon.

"You lose," James said as Ghost started to smile as Akira tied his hands.

All guns were pointed at him as the group decided on what to do with him next.


	4. Chapter 4: Breaking Point

Chapter 4: Breaking Point

Captain Williams and Sergeant Horvath were in a huge argument.

"Captain we need to move," Sergeant Horvath said angrily.

The Captain looked at him, "I understand but in case you didn't notice we are trapped in this building, and if anyone of us so much as set one foot out of that door immediately gets a one way ticket to meet Jesus," he said trying to remain calm.

As the argument went on, Sergeant Patterson decided to step in and do something about it.

"Hey, hey, we are trapped here and you two arguing will not help us get out of here," Patterson said.

"Also it isn't the shooters alone that have us pinned but in case you didn't notice, we have a large number of dead bodies heading towards us not only that but if you look outside you will notice that some of our dead comrades aren't dead yet as you can see that rookie Jameson who's on his feet and is walking around reanimated as one of them, so whatever this virus is, it appears to be airborne and do you know what that means, in case you don't I'm going to give you an explanation, if we die we come back as them, bitten or not we come back as them," the sergeant continued.

Looking at Captain Williams before turning his attention to Horvath, "Let me make my fucking point, the shooters and the dead are trying to kill us, let's not make their job easy by killing each other, the only way we're getting out of this is together, we're rangers goddamn it and it's about time we start acting like ranger," Patterson talked as the others in the room listened, looking at Williams, "You are our Captain, we will follow you, left or right it doesn't matter," he said as Williams nodded.

"Take control," Patterson added before taking a few steps back.

Taking a deep breath, the Captain asked, "What's our ammo situation?"

"Got 3 boxes on the SAW 200 rounds each sir, 4 clips on the berretta," Moss said.

"Same here," Santos said.

"About 4 and a half clips on the m4, 2 for the berretta, 2 frags and a claymore," one ranger said.

Once the captain was done hearing about the ammo situation he turned to the medic Valentine, "How many did we lose?" he asked.

Valentine took a moment to himself to think, "We lost 6 one of them our radioman when our chopper got hit by the RPG and came under mortar and small arms fire, 20 more when Legend 02 went down, 3 when Sergeant Horvath was crossing the field of fire to get to our position and 2 wounded one critical and we need to get him a MEDEVAC sir," the medic finished his report.

Miller's coughing pulled the medic away from the others, "I don't want to die Doc," the wounded soldier begged Valentine to save his life.

The Captain decided to give himself some space and time to assess the situation they were in.

'_We lost 29 and there are 28 of us, an unknown number of shooters in the buildings across from ours and a dozens of dead bodies slowly closing in on this position,'_ he thought.

'_We need to move but we're trapped, the enemies got us trapped and they have the upper hand to end us but why aren't they doing anything," _the captain continued to think.

"Normally on the battlefield, if you have the upper hand you take it," he said to himself.

After a while, he gathered with the rest of his men and told them about his plans.

"We're going to play defense on this one, the enemies got us pinned and there's no way for us to call in Close Air, so here's my plan, we're on the ground floor so I want Ramirez and Caparzo to booby trap this area with claymores or anything that would warn us of a breach while the rest of us occupy the third and second floor but make sure to keep your heads down when you're headed up there remember the enemy still has us outgunned," the captain said.

"Rangers lead the way," Specialist Harris said.

"HO-AH," the rest of the men said in unison before initiating their plan.

000

"You know, for a guy who just lost his teammate you seem pretty cool about it," Akira said as he kept an eye on Ghost.

The Russian however didn't answer and said something in Russian.

The messy haired boy didn't like what he said even if he didn't know what it meant, "What did you say to me?" he asked raising his fist only for James to restrain him.

"Calm down son," he said holding the boys arm.

Ghost smiled, "Daddy's boy," he said.

James told Akira to stick close to Takashi and his group as the chopper will be there any minute to extract them.

"I want you to know that I am not your friend," the eye patched man said, "I'm not going to help you, I'm going to break you until you tell me what I want to know."

Ghost was calm; he said something in Russian again which James understood.

"So you think I'm all talk huh" Lieutenant Masters said.

"Who sent you?" he asked.

No answer, James knew this man wasn't going to talk so easily so he asked him another question.

"Where's the rest of your team?" the war veteran asked.

Ghost chuckled, "I don't do teams, that's my employers, I'm strictly solo act, I like to travel light," he said.

"That was a pretty well timed ambush you knew our blind spots and the time we spent in one spot and our way path, you knew it all but still you failed, why?" James asked, "Why would you attack us when you knew you were outnumbered, why sacrifice your partner, why would you want to get yourself caught?"

Ghost started to chuckle again.

A beeping sound caught James attention, the he realized, this was all a trap.

"GPS tracker!" James shouted as a chopper came inbound.

A shooter from the helicopter fired rockets at the group down below before firing off smoke rounds to cover 3 men so that they could rope down.

"Get to cover," Akira ordered Takashi and his group as he fired at the helicopter.

Armed with SCAR assault rifles, the 3 men covered by the smoke made their way towards Ghost while James and the others were distracted by the chopper.

They got him to his feet, "PEDER!" James shouted as he aimed his rifle at the Russian before the shooter from the chopper fired an explosive round at the man which hit the ground few inches in front of him, exploding and sending the man sailing through the air before landing hard on the ground.

As the helicopter landed, with the crew chief providing cover fire, they successfully extract Ghost but not before taking Rei, and two of James teammates them being Kenji and Yamato while on the way to the chopper.

"NO!" Akira shouted as he fired at the helicopter which took off.

The AFO team went to check on James, "You alright James?" they asked getting the man to his feet.

Coughing, he nodded.

"Damn you're one lucky bastard, Kevlar protected you," Tombstone said.

James vest was anything but in good condition, it was hanging off his right shoulder since the strap on the left was torn, his ammo pouch burnt and torn open, his radio was destroyed, the metal plating for the vest could be seen most of it dented.

Taking off the vest and throwing it aside, James was now in his BDU.

"They got Kenji and Yamato and that ginger haired girl from that boys group," Axe said.

Wiping off a little blood from the side of his mouth, "Damn," he said as he spat some blood out of his mouth.

"Sir we got to get you a medic now," Axe suggested.

Shaking his head, "No," James said as he stuffed the remainder of his ammo into his pocket.

"Our job now is to link up with the rangers and the rest of the AFO team," he said.

Akira came to him, "What about the others sir?" he asked as he reloaded his AK with Takashi and the rest of his group following from behind.

Axe, Tombstone and Buster nodded, "Roger that," they said in unison.

"Akira get these civilians back to base," James said as Akira shook his head.

"No no, not happening, I want to help," the crimson eyed boy said.

"Absolutely not, you are to-"James was cut short when Takashi decided to say something too.

"We're staying too, they got one of ours and we're not going to leave her behind," the spiky haired boy said.

James shook his head, "Not a chance, you're not a soldier and if anything happens to you it will be on my head," he said.

"Sir, with all due respect you're going to need all the help you can get even if it is in the form of a 17 year old hard headed boy like myself," Takashi said.

Akira agreed with every single word Takashi said, "He's right sir, you're wounded and like it or not we're staying to help," he said.

James argued back, "Forget it, this is way over your head plus you saw how well armed, well trained and well organized those guys were," he said.

Takashi wasn't going to quit, sure Rei broke his heart but he wasn't going to just leave her at the mercy of those guys.

"Sir please let me help," he said to which James only ignored him.

He tried again, "Please sir, please let me and Kohta help we can help just please let us help sir," the brown haired boy said.

"I said no kid and that's my final answer," James shouted as the AFO team looked on.

"No, I will not take no for an answer, Rei's capture because of me, I should've kept a better eye on her but I didn't so I'm still coming and if you want to stop me, you're going to have to shoot me," Takashi said as he looked into the Lieutenant's eye.

James took a deep breath, "Alright, but you will do what I say and when I say it, got it?" he said in a stern voice.

Takashi and Kohta both nodded, "Got it," Takashi answered.

"We got to get you a vest," James said to Takashi since Kohta already has one.

Buster radioed the other 3 members of his team, _"Beast, Buster, Babylon, I say again Babylon over," _he said.

"_Babylon got it, Beast out, see you there lieutenant," _Beast replied on the other end.

"Alright, I just contacted the rest of my team we'll meet them at the Ranger drop off point," Buster said as he checked his magazine making sure there wasn't any bad rounds.

The sound of a chopper approaching got their attention.

"Pop smoke Akira," James said as Akira nodded.

Pulling the pin, Akira threw the smoke grenade at an open area of the place they were in.

Contacting the chopper, "_AV81 do you have smoke over," _he said.

As the chopper got closer and came into view, "_Roger yellow smoke," _the pilot said.

"That's us," Akira said to himself as the chopper slowly landed.

A crew chief came out, "Come on, let's go," he said as he ducked his head.

"Saeko you're going to have to go look after the others," Takashi said as the purple haired swordswoman shook her head.

"No," she said as Shizuka, Alice, Saya and Zeke got onboard the chopper.

Takashi wanted to protect the only person he knew he couldn't live without, "Saeko please get on the chopper," he insisted.

James looked at the two, "Come on guys, choppers almost at bingo fuel we got to go," he said.

Akira looked on, _"So that's love huh," _he thought to himself as suddenly images started to flash in his mind.

"What the hell was that?" he asked himself placing a hand to his head.

"I'm staying Takashi," Saeko said.

The chopper pilot couldn't wait any longer, "Sorry sir but we got to go or we too will be stranded here," he said.

James gritted his teeth, "Go, go" he waved as the pilot nodded before taking off.

Approaching Takashi once the chopper was out of sight, "She's your responsibility, anything that happens to her is on you, got it," he said looking straight in the eyes.

Takashi nodded, "Yes sir," he said as Saeko stood by him.

"Let's move we got a lot of ground to cover," James said taking point.

000

"So what now?" a man asked his partner who smoking a cigarette.

Shaking his head, he flicked the cigarette away, "Nothing those guys aren't going anywhere, we got them trapped in that building," he said.

The other man simply nodded, "This is just fucking boring," he said as he scratched his neck that was starting to itch.

"You have any family?" he asked.

"Wife and 2 girls," his partner answered.

"Where are they?" he asked.

"Austria," his partner answered.

"Huh, funny you don't look Austrian," he said, "Didn't get your name by the way,"

"Jonas Heinrich," his partner answered.

"Nice to meet you names Johnson, Bill Johnson," the other man introduced himself extending his hand.

Shaking it, Jonas asked the same question Bill asked, "You have any family?"

Bill nodded, "Mum and sis, never had any luck in the romance department you know what I mean," he said.

Jonas smiled, "Yeah, had a similar problem before I met my wife," he said.

"Where are you from anyway cause you don't look Austrian?" Bill asked.

"I'm from Texas, well dad was actually, mother was from Austria," Jonas said.

Nodding, "I'm from Norwich," Bill said.

"Mom's was from London but moved to Norwich after she married my father," he told Jonas.

"What was he like your father?" Jonas felt like he had to ask.

Bill shook his head, "Don't know, walked out when I was 5," he said.

"Sorry," Jonas apologized.

"Nah, it's nothing it doesn't bother me that much anymore besides I'm not the only kid whose father walked out on him," Bill said.

"Still it had to do something?" the Austrian said.

Shaking his head again Bill said, "Not for me."

"You think they're scarred too, those soldiers trapped it's only a matter of time before they start to turn on each other," Jonas said.

"Rains coming," Bill said as the sound of thunder was heard.

"It's going to be a cold and wet night," Jonas added as they continued watching the building the rangers were in.

000

The sun was slowly setting down, evening slowly turned into night.

"Captain Williams, I've booby trap downstairs with flash bangs and claymores, nothings coming in here without tripping on something," Private Caparzo reported to his Commanding officer.

Captain Williams nodded as he and his men maintained a defensive position on the 2nd floor while Sergeant Horvath and the rest on the 3rd.

In the distance, Ramirez could see the dead have stopped moving and just stood idly from his m21 sniper scope, "They're not going to stay there for long, once the firework starts over again," he said.

Keying in his throat mic, "_Capt, I'm going patrol the rest of the building and maybe set up an OP over," _he said.

"_Roger that, need some company,"_ Captain Williams replied.

"_Nah, I'm good, Ramirez out," _the sniper answered.

Darkness settled upon them, it was so dark you thought you were walking in an empty world, Ramirez decided to use his night vision goggles, he could've used his flashlight but that would give away his position.

"This looks like a good spot," he said coming to a place which offered great concealment and vantage point.

He took out his poncho and set it against a wall, he took one of the cushions of the couch he found and made it his pillow.

"This must be an office building and this is I'm guessing where the workers sleep or read during their break," the sniper said to himself.

'_Couch looks comfortable,' _he said as he rested his rifle against the wall.

"_Captain I'm going to break it down at OP1,"_ he said.

It was a while before the Captain replied, _"Roger, be careful out there, rest up gents," _he said before signing off.

The ranger took shifts 3 hours each as the rain finally came.

"Fuck its dark and cold," one ranger complained.

Another ranger chuckled, "Yeah, you'd be surprised how dark and cold mix," he said as he shivered in his poncho.

Sergeant Patterson was on watch now.

"Japan always this cold?" the same ranger asked.

The other simply shook his head, "I don't know, just think of the bunk back in the states," he said.

"Fuck that, I'd rather think of my bed at home, me and my wife laying there and" the ranger said.

The other simply smiled, "That works too," he said.

"Think we'll ever make it out of here," another ranger joined in the conversation between the two.

"Yeah, we're rangers, we're the baddest motherfuckers on the planet, we make Navy Seals look like average mall cops, when they need help who do they call, us, that's right they call us," the complaining Ranger said.

The other 2 simply nodded.

"Get some sleep, whose shift is it after the sarge?" the 2nd ranger asked.

"I think Harris," the 3rd one answered.

The 2nd ranger nodded.

"I know we've been on the same battalion but we don't really know each other so names Peterson," the 2nd Ranger introduced himself.

"Great to meet you, names Hodges," the 3rd one introduced himself.

Turning to the first ranger, "What's your name?" Hodges asked.

"O'Bannon, my names O'Bannon," the 1st ranger said.

"Nice to meet you," Hodges said.

O'Bannon shivered in his poncho, "So much for being the baddest motherfucker on the planet, you can't even handle a little cold," Peterson teased.

Hodges chuckled, "Yeah, that's real tough alright, shivering in your poncho what's next going to piss yourself due to the cold," he teased.

All three men contain their laughter to gentle chuckles.

Thunder rumbled, lightning flashed, in the far side of the building Ramirez was looking through the scope of his sniper rifle, keeping an eye on the dead.

'_Huh, they're moving probably due to the thunder and the lighting, they're confused and don't know where to go,' _he thought as he watched them.

The sound of something falling got him aiming his rifle to the left where the sound originated from.

His night vision weren't much help as whenever lighting flashed it flared his vision, he couldn't see but it was apparent that something was approaching him.

'_Shoot don't shoot, shoot and get discovered, don't shoot and get killed by whatever is approaching me,' _the sniper thought over and over as the shuffling got closer.

Finally Ramirez decided not to fire, thinking he might accidentally shoot one of his friends so he used a code to identify friendlies.

"Flash," he said in a hushed voice but was drowned out by loud claps of lighting.

As the shuffling grew closer and closer, the sniper's hand trembled; through his night vision he saw it a girl and a familiar one with wet shoulder length hair just standing there looking at him, her clothes were soaked and you could see through her top that she had a white bra on.

"Help me," she said raising her hand.

"Help me," again she repeated this time holding her hand out.

The sergeant froze in his spot, a flash of lighting flared his night vision and when it was clear again, she was gone as if she was never there in the first place.

"_Sergeant check in," _his radio squawked and the voice of Captain Williams spoke on the other end.

Keying in his throat mic,_ "This is Ramirez over," _he said as he switched off his night vision.

"_It can't be," _the sergeant said unaware his throat mic was still keyed in.

Captain Williams responded, _"What can't be?"_ he asked.

Ramirez realized it and said nothing, he began gathering his stuff and went to find another spot.

"She's dead," he told himself over and over and over again till he was at the rooftop.

It was raining but he didn't care since the face of the woman was still fresh in his mind.

He set up sniping position and looked through the scope; he had another bag next to him which had another rifle in it.

As he looked through the scope he found himself unable to focus every time he aimed at the dead the girl would appear amongst them.

"Why now, why of all times," the sniper asked himself.

000

"Fuck, let's move people," Buster said as he looked at his watch and noticed it was already 8 at night.

The rain and heavy wind slowed them down but they weren't going to stop.

The road to midtown seemed long but at the same time it seemed short.

"Everybody, aim your rifles downwards so to not take in moisture," James said as the thunder rumbled loudly.

"How much further?" Kohta shouted from behind the pack as he tried to keep up with the others against the wind.

"Almost there, we'll take the train tunnel the rest of the way," Buster shouted back.

Kohta nodded.

Up front James saw the sign that said underground train tunnel, "We're here boys and girl," the veteran shouted.

Buster and Axe went in first before being followed by Tombstone and Akira, Takashi, Saeko, Kohta and James entered lastly.

"It's dark, here pass it out," Tombstone said handing James flashlights as he turned on his.

Axes had on a pair of night vision goggles and opt to use them instead.

"Alright Axe take point, Tombstone guard our rear," Buster ordered.

The AFO lieutenant tried to contact his three other teammates but discovered he couldn't as the reception was bad.

"Fuck," he cursed through gritted teeth as he followed Axe from behind, his flashlight shining the AFO operative.

Down in the darkness of the quiet and abandoned train tunnel or so they thought a very horrid smell hung in the air.

The smell was so strong that Kohta stopped to throw up while Takashi, James and Tombstone covered their noses with their hands.

"What the fuck is that smell?" Axe said as he started to feel nauseous.

The smell got stronger and stronger as they got further into the tunnel.

Through their military issued army boots they could feel the ground was wet as there was a squishy noise every step they take.

Buster looked down before quickly looking back up, "Don't look down," he said as he looked at Axe who was increasing his pace as he wanted to get out of the tunnel as fast as he can.

"What's down there?" Tombstone said he stepped on something which made a crunching noise.

Looking down, he saw, skulls and dozens of them all over the floor along with a few rotting body parts and the rats that fed on them.

"Oh my god!" Tombstone said loudly before Akira told him to be quiet.

Takashi felt sick instantly looking at the gruesome sight, the skulls were red with blood, there were organs strewn all over the place, a head with its spine still attached to it, a man with his mouth torn wide open which reminded him of a scene from the movie SAW where a woman was killed with the reverse bear trap.

"Oh god," Takashi exclaimed.

"Let's move," James said as Takashi and Kohta nodded.

As they got away from the site where the bodies were Takashi turned to James, "What do you think happen to those people?" he asked.

James shook his head, "They must have hid here thinking they would be safe," he said.

As the brown haired boy was about to ask another question the party came to a stop.

"Why did we stop?" Kohta asked.

"Temporary road block kid," Buster answered.

In front of them was a train and inside the train were people, dead people not yet reanimated.

"We're gonna have to breach through the door," Buster said as he gave a nod to Axe who took his bag off and started to search for something.

"Got it," Axe exclaimed happily pulled out a round object, he stuck it to the door and pushed the button in the middle.

6 red lights went on around the button and started to go off one by one each with a beeping sound.

The men laid down on the floor as three red lights went off.

Once the last red light was out the object exploded, "Breaching charge," Axe said knowing already what the others were going to ask while getting up and dusting himself off.

Buster gave him the signal to enter the train, looking at his watch and noted that it was already 8.15 pm.

"Hey Saeko are you okay?" Takashi asked when he noticed that she had been very quiet ever since they passed the boneyard.

No answer as she just kept on staring forward and continued walking.

The boy decided to stay close to her just in case.

"_Poor bastards," _Akira thought as they moved through the train and at the same time trying not to step on the bodies.

The group wondered, what were these people doing down here.

"EMP must've fried the circuits on this train, these people must've waited for rescue to come but it never did and the military personnel that was traveling on this train must've took the easy way out," James said as he shined the light on the bodies many of them having a bullet hole in their heads.

Kohta felt sad when he saw the body of a little girl being held by a woman most likely her mother.

"To spare themselves an agonizing death thinking it would be more compassionate to just hold their loved ones close while the soldiers shot everyone on this train before turning the gun on themselves," Saeko said breaking her silence as she pushed forward.

Takashi nodded his head, "It's sad, most of these people weren't ready to die but life is cruel," he said.

Axe came to a stop once he exited the train, "What is it, why are we stopping?" Buster asked.

"Well we got two separate tunnels and both which I don't leads to where?" Axe said.

Buster went to get Akira and asked him where the tunnels lead to.

"Left tunnels leads to Midtown while I'm not really sure where the right one leads," Akira said.

"My school, the right one leads towards a station not far from my school," Takashi told both of them.

Buster nodded, "We got left," he said as Axe took point.

Looking at his watch he noticed it was 8.15 pm, "We have to be out of this city before 12," the AFO member told himself.

000

"General, is everything alright," Colonel Rodway asked as the general had been very quiet for quite some time.

"_Some things not right,"_ the general thought, _"Why send in the rangers when we've got the marines, airforce and navy here," _the thought bothered the general to no end.

Getting up from his seat, he approached a technician, "Contact the 7th fleet and ask them to have their jets fueled and ready to launch," he said as the technician nodded and got to it.

Colonel Rodway had to ask, "Sir what's this all about?" he said.

"Why send in the Rangers when you have marines, airforce, Japanese self defense force and the damn navy at your disposal," the general said.

Colonel Rodway was still confused, "What do you mean sir," he said.

"C.I.A agent codename Raven has provided us with very damn good intel and we've shared that intel with the senator, why send in the rangers if you know a nukes going to hit the city at 12 in the midnight," the general said.

Colonel Rodway started to catch up to where the general was going, "You think the senator know something we don't," he said.

General Reigart nodded, "Yes, and I'm going to find out what," he said as he went into his office.

000

Navy pilots Bugspray and Skylight were in the messy hall having a push up contest against the marines with Bugspray being the referee.

"51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64," Bugspray counted.

The other crew members were there cheering.

"Alright stop it now, Bugspray, Skylight, Admiral wants to see you in his office now," Master Chief Levi said.

The others went on about doing their thing while Bugspray and Skylight left the mess hall.

Knocking on the door and waited till the admiral told them to come in.

In the office both pilots stood before the Admiral as he looked through the documents on both pilots.

"Lieutenant Randall "Bugspray" Jenkins, born July 5th 1989, graduated from Harvard university at 18 with a masters degree in Engineering, father was Mathew "Vanguard" Jenkins a Navy pilot died during recon mission over Bosnia am I right?" the admiral licked his thumb as he flip through the files.

"Yes sir," Bugspray answered.

"Lieutenant Jeremy "Skylight" Skylar, born August 3rd 1988, graduated from MIT at 20 with a master in Chemical Engineering, father was Anthony "Archangel" Skylar also a navy pilot died also during a recon mission over Bosnia and was Vanguard Jenkins's wingman," the admiral said as he closed the file.

"What is wrong with you two, I've been hearing complaints from the officers about how the two of you tend to pull stunts and disobey orders, your fathers would be disappointed should they see what you two have become," Turning his attention to Bugspray, "what my daughter sees in you Jenkins is a great mystery to me, you're a very smart individual with very weak character, leadership and decision making skills," Admiral Stackhouse spoke in a stern voice, "Do you have anything to say to me, anything?" he asked as the navy pilot just stood there.

Without looking at the admiral in the eye, Bugspray just answered, "Negative sir," he said.

"You and Skylar are to be on standby, enjoy the cockpit Jenkins it could be your last," Admiral said coldly.

Letting the words settle in, he just saluted the admiral before leaving followed by Skylight.

"So we got our orders huh?" Skylight asked once they were out.

Bugspray just nodded as he headed towards the locker room to get ready.

Taking out his satellite phone, he dialed in a number and waited for the person on the other end to pick up.

"Come on pick up," Bugspray told himself.

No answer, "I'll try again later, "he said as he put the phone back in his locker.

"Hey," Skylight said, "At least you know she's safe," he told his friend.

000

"Let go of me," A certain ginger haired girl said as she is thrown into a cell.

Two more men dressed in black military attire were thrown into the cell opposite hers.

"What do want with us?" Rei asked the two masked men who were looking at her.

They said nothing and left the room.

"Kenji you okay bro?" Yamato asked noticing that the radioman was wounded at the lower back.

"For now," Kenji said trying to hide the pain he was feeling.

'_Where the hell are we?" _Yamato thought as he looked around the cell and noticed that there were other people too.

All eyes were on them as Yamato plugged Kenji's wounds, "Hang in there man, just hang in there," he said.


	5. Chapter 5: All In or Nothing

Chapter 5: All in or Nothing

"Smoke, you see anything up front?" Beast asked his fellow Operative who was on top of a truck with a pair of binoculars.

"Beast I can't see shit even with the night vision on, damn lightning keeps flaring my vision all the time," Smoke said as he zoomed in.

"Uh Beast, I think you're gonna want to see this," Smoke suddenly said as Beast climbed up the truck.

Once on the truck, "What is it?" Beast asked as Smoke just handed him the binoculars and pointed down the direction he was looking at.

"Jesus," Beast said as he looked through the binoculars.

There were dozens of both dead and gollums in front of them.

'_And this is the only shortest route to Babylon,' _he thought as he handed the binoculars back to Smoke.

Coming down from the truck Beast told everyone to gather around him.

"Okay gents we got ourselves one big ass problem, "Beast said.

Noburo then asked, "What problem?"

Thinking for awhile on how to tell them, "Well we got a bunch of Gollums and Zombies up front," he said.

"Don't say that," Yukio said.

"What?" Beast asked.

"That, the Z word, it's ridiculous," Yukio said.

Before it could escalate into a huge argument, Noburo decided to step in, "Alright, alright, we won't use the Z word okay now can we get back to our original subject," he said.

"How are we going to get to Babylon now that the shortest route is gone," Panther said.

Before anyone else could speak, Yukio shared his idea, "Not necessarily, there is another route," he said.

"Well, tell us where?" Beast said.

Taking a few steps forward, "If we go down this way we will come up to a shop, on the side is an alleyway which will lead us to a warehouse and if we turn right and keep walking straight we will be at Babylon in no time," Yukio explained.

"How did you know where Babylon is?" Smoke asked.

"I took a look at your map," the SDF operator said.

Nodding, "It's worth a try," Panther said.

"Let's do it," Smoke said.

Beast nodded, "Yukio, take point and lead us to Babylon," he said as the SDF operative nodded.

000

"Hey Hodges what time is it?" O'Bannon asked.

Looking at his watch he pressed a button which showed the time in blue, "It's 8.30 pm why?" O'Bannon asked.

Shaking his head, "No, I just thought it might be time for Patterson to change shifts but it's okay," he said.

"Any you guys know where Sergeant Ramirez is?" Peterson asked.

Both Rangers shook their heads, "I don't know but thanks to him we're still here," Hodges said.

"Yeah, no offense but Captain Williams would've gotten us all killed," he added.

O'Bannon and Peterson nodded.

"Hey what's that sound?" O'Bannon asked as he heard sound of an incoming projectile get closer and closer.

One ranger suddenly shouted, "Mortar!"

"Everybody get down!" another ranger shouted as the mortar hit the outer walls of the building they were in.

4 rangers were wounded from the explosion, "Medic!" O'Bannon heard someone shout as the high pitch sound in his ears stopped.

Gunshots came from the other building hitting two more rangers killing them instantly.

000

In the other building, "Sometimes to get ants out of their hives, you have to smoke the hives," an enemy soldier said as he fired into the building killing another ranger.

000

"Return fire!" Captain Williams ordered the rangers.

Ramirez who was on the rooftop was picking off the enemy one by one but then slowly he found himself unable to focus.

Every time he aimed at his rifle at someone the same girl would appear there.

"Goddamn it," he said as he fired his killing an enemy rifleman.

Ramirez slapped himself twice, "You can die for your country but I'm going to live for mine," he started to recite something he wrote.

"I am a reaper," he said as he fired again.

Sergeant Foley and 3 other ranger, O'Bannon, Peterson and Hodges were planning to use the chaos as a way to infiltrate the enemy building.

"While they're too busy trying to kill the others, we will use this opportunity to cross over and take out the machine guns," Foley said.

Machine gunners Santos and Moss came to join the group, "we're coming too, you're gonna need our help," Moss said.

Sergeant Foley nodded, "Alright, we move fast and we move with purpose, ho-ah?" he said.

"Ho-ah," all four rangers replied in unison.

Standing by the doorway, the African American sergeant looked around the open area they were about to cross.

"Go, go, go," Foley ordered them to move once he made sure the field was clear.

One ranger on Patterson's team saw the six rangers running across the field and informed both Capt. Williams and Sgt. Patterson.

"What are they doing?" Williams asked himself.

Down in the fields, the six men were running in zig zags as to make it hard for the enemy to hit them.

"Ah, I'm hit!" Santos exclaimed in pain as he fell to the ground.

Moss not wanting to abandon his friend pulled him by his vest, "Come on, I'm not leaving you," he said as a bullet went through his shoulder.

But that didn't seem to stop the man, Foley and the others were by the doorway of the other building waiting for them.

"Come on!" O'Bannon shouted.

Once they were close enough, Peterson and Hodges ran to assist both men.

"Moss and Santos are hit sir," Peterson said.

"Yes, I can see that detective," Foley said as he kicked down the door.

Peterson and Hodges set Santos and Moss down, "Where are you hit?" Hodges asked Santos.

"In my leg," Santos said.

"And you?" Peterson asked Moss.

"Shoulder," Moss said.

Searching for his first aid, "Fuck!" Peterson would angrily exclaim when he realized his med kit was nowhere to be found, "Must've dropped it as we were crossing over," he said.

"Perimeter breach," an enemy soldier shouted as he shot at the group of six.

O'Bannon returned fire hitting the man in the head.

"I can still move sir," Santos told Sergeant Foley as Peterson helped him on his feet.

Looking at the Corporals leg, Foley knew there was no where the man could move.

"No, Peterson give Moss your m4 and take his m60, same goes for Santos and Hodges," Foley said as he kept an eye on the corridor.

Switching weapons Foley gave his orders, "Moss, Santos stay here and secure this area, the rest of you on me," he said.

000

Jonas and Bill observed from their post as the rest of their comrades led by a violent, merciless leader Alexei slaughtered the American Rangers.

Not being able to take it anymore, Jonas abandoned his post, grabbing his M4 and Mossberg shotgun and walked away leaving Bill who also had enough followed him too.

"I didn't sign up for this shit," Jonas said as he knew what Bill was going to ask him.

Coming to the emergency staircase, they headed for the bottom floor.

Meanwhile Sergeant Foley and his fire team were clearing the second floor.

"Frag out," O'Bannon shouted.

The grenade took out a machine gun post and 3 enemy combatants.

"Go, go, go," Foley ordered as they advanced.

The mortars were still peppering their comrades, "We need to take out those mortars or else," Foley said.

O'Bannon volunteered himself to takeout the mortars, "I'll go sir," he said.

Foley, thinking that the mortars were on the rooftops decided to grant O'Bannon permission to check it out.

"Peterson you go with him, Hodges you're with me," Foley said.

Jonas and Bill headed down the third floor staircase not knowing that they were in a collision course with Foley and Hodges.

As soon as both sides ran into each others, "Contact," Hodges shouted as he fired at Jonas and Bill who took cover.

"Hold your fire," Jonas shouted at the rangers.

"Hold your fire," Foley told Hodges.

Hodges stopped firing as Jonas and Bill came out of cover.

"We came to surrender ourselves," Jonas said as he placed his rifle on the ground.

Holding his hands up, Bill also did the same.

"The mortars aren't on the rooftop, they're behind the building," Bill said.

Foley didn't know whether to take the man's word or not, "Why should we trust you?" he asked.

"Because I'm your only hope of saving your men," Jonas answered.

Not knowing what else to do, Foley ordered Hodges to hand the men back their weapons.

"The third floor is a death trap, the troopers there are heavily armed and have modified body armor," Jonas said.

"That and guns much bigger than yours, "Bill added.

Hodges then stepped in, "What do you reckon?" he asked.

Jonas then shared his plans, "Their armor is weak at the neck," he said.

"So the question is, how good is your aim?" Bill said.

Meanwhile, O"Bannon and Peterson arrived on the rooftop to find it empty, keying in his throat mic Peterson spoke, _"Uh, Sir we're on the rooftop and it is empty, I say again rooftop is empty."_

Responding, _"Mortars are behind the building, I say again mortars are behind the building do you copy over,"_ Foley said.

Nodding, _"Roger sir, headed their now," _Peterson said.

Foley and Hodges with the assistance of Jonas and Bill stood by at the entrance to the third floor corridor.

"On 3, flash bang first then explosives okay," Foley said as the rest nodded.

Kicking down the door, Jonas and Hodges threw their flash bangs, once they went off Foley and Bill would throw grenades in while the troops were temporarily blinded.

After the grenades went off and most of the enemy blown to bits, they entered to clean up the rest.

"On your left," Bill called out as he shot an enemy combatant that was staggering.

"Clear," Foley declared before he received another transmission from Santos and Moss.

"_Uh, sir those soldiers that we just shot are getting up, so what do we do?" _Santos spoke on the other end.

Before Foley could respond, one of the dead soldiers tackled him to the ground with the others getting up as well.

Jonas pulled the undead soldier away from Foley and threw him against the wall before shooting him twice in the head.

"You okay?" he asked helping the ranger to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm good," Foley answered getting up as a dead came between them only to be shot by Hodges.

More dead came this time from the 4th floor, "Too many and we don't have enough ammo, fall back," Foley said as the troops fall back.

000

Ramirez on the rooftop was covering Foley's escape, providing sniper cover so that Foley could evac the building.

"Son of a bitch," he cursed when he missed his target due to the change in wind.

Firing again, the sniper got two undead soldiers with one bullet.

"Help me," the girl's voice echoed in his head as he tried to drown it out with gunfire.

The more he tried to drown the voice out, the more louder it got that it made him want to turn his gun on himself.

"I am a ranger," Ramirez told himself as he saw Foley and the two corporation mercenaries carrying the wounded Moss and Santos out of the building

O'Bannon and Peterson were still on the rooftop firing down at something behind the building.

"_Probably taking out the mortars," _Ramirez thought.

Then he noticed that the dead that were in the building were headed straight for the rooftop drawn by the sound of gunfire coming from the two rangers still there.

"Shit," Ramirez cursed when he realized he was all out of ammo after using most of it to clear the 4th floor of machine guns and the rest of it to cover Foley's escape.

"_Time to let the ex-wife out of the bag," _he thought to himself as he went to get his other rifle bag.

Getting the Barrett out of his bag and setting up its tripod, Ramirez aimed at the doorway towards the roof.

"_O'Bannon, Peterson," _Ramirez tried contacting them.

No answer, he tried again.

This time it was Peterson who answered, "_Ramirez," _he said on the other end.

"_Yeah listen you got a lot of bogey headed straight for you,"_ the sniper told Peterson who responded by looking at the doorway to see the dead there.

"_Get out of there now!"_ Sergeant Ramirez shouted through the radio before firing his rifle.

Rushing to O'Bannon, Peterson grabbed him by the vest, "Come on man we got to go," he said.

Tying a rope to the railing before throwing down the rest, _"Ramirez cover us please while we rappel down to safety," _Peterson told the sniper.

"_Roger that," _Ramirez replied as the two rangers climbed over the rail and started to rappel down.

Then something else caught his attention, the large groups of dead he was keeping an eye on weren't standing still anymore, they were headed towards their position and fast.

Keying his throat mic, "_Captain Williams, large hostile group approaching from the north sir, I say again a large hostile group approaching from the north," _he said.

"_Roger," _Captain Williams replied.

000

Captain Williams was organizing his rangers, "Ranger we are going to hold this line no matter what, do you got that," he said.

"Loud and clear sir," The rangers replied in unison.

Turning to Sergeant Patterson, "Sergeant, I want 3 of your best shooters on the 4th floor with Ramirez," the captain told the sergeant who nodded before singling out Harper, Lucas and Vasquez out.

The 3 hand-picked rangers headed for the 4th floor to assist Sergeant Ramirez who was actually on the rooftop.

The Rangers on the third and second floor had their weapons ready; they knew this wasn't going to be an easy fight.

Outside, O'Bannon and Peterson who had just rappelled out of the hostile building were running back towards their stronghold.

"Come on!" Peterson heard Foley and Hodges shout from the distance.

Once they were in, all 6 men including Jonas and Bill got into defensive formation.

"You guys are fucking crazy you know that," Foley directed it to both O'Bannon and Peterson.

Both men just nodded, "Yeah ever since I was kid," Peterson joked which made the other 5 men chuckle.

"Here they come," Foley said as he heard the shrieks and roars of the dead grew louder and louder.

Something was off, they weren't shuffling anymore but they were running and at athletic speed.

"Remember short control burst," Hodges said which made everyone look at him strange.

"Son, was that from aliens?" Foley asked.

"Yeah," Hodges replied.

Foley just shook his head, "What's next, how can they cut the power man they're animals," he too quoted another line from the movie as a way to tease Hodges.

Captain Williams who was upstairs told the rangers to hold fire till he gave the order but many of the rangers were anxious.

"Wait till they're close enough," he said.

One ranger decided to voice out, "Sir I think we've hold fire long enough," he said.

"Not yet," Williams told him.

Once they were halfway across the field, "Fire!" the captain shouted as the bullets began to fly.

For every dead killed ten more took its place.

"Loading," many rangers shouted to tell others that they're reloading.

Downstairs, Foley and his team were holding on their own some of the dead have breach but none have made it to the staircase that would lead them to the 2nd floor.

"Why didn't the claymore go!" O'Bannon shouted as he shoved a grenade into the mouth of an undead, pulling the pin, he kicked the undead back into the horde where it blew up.

"Always wanted to do that," he said to himself.

Foley also noticed that, the claymore was supposed to go off at the event of a breach.

"Damn things fucked!" Hodges said.

The dead were slowly outnumbering them that they would have to fall back to the upper floor and hold there.

Suddenly the flash bangs went off but not before blinding Peterson and Bill.

"Goddamn I can't see," Bill said rubbing his eyes as Jonas covered him and Peterson.

Jonas knew it was just a matter of time before they join their ranks, "Sergeant Foley, how many grenades do you have with you?" he asked.

"Got a few why?" Foley asked.

Nodding, "When I say now I want you to throw one grenade at the door way next to the claymore and the rest in the middle of this room but be sure to be close to the stairway," Jonas told him as Foley nodded understandingly.

Pushing Peterson and Bill towards the stairs "Go up now, Hodges, O'Bannon you too," he ordered.

As Foley got to the stairs and was next to Jonas, the Austrian gave him a nod and told him to throw the grenades.

Pulling the pin on the first grenade, he threw it towards the doorway where it landed next to the claymore and two more into the middle of the room.

Both men flipped a table and took cover behind it as the grenades went off.

Both men shared a chuckle before heading upstairs as more undead came.

"All heavy gunners watch cover the staircase," Foley ordered when he was upstairs.

Captain Williams approached him, "Sergeant Foley glad that you could finally join us," he said.

But before the captain could say anything else, the sergeant interrupted him, "Captain we need to call in an airstrike," he said.

Captain Williams nodded, "I know but our radioman was killed when we landed, and there's no way our short frequency radios could contact_ Ballroom_," he said.

Jonas decided to step in, "Captain would it help if I told you that we have a radio at the other building," he said.

Captain Williams turned his attention towards the Austrian, "And who are you?" he asked.

"Jonas Heinrich sir, I was a soldier for the Genesis Corp but now I consider myself freelance," Jonas said.

Captain Williams knew they didn't have enough time to chit chat so he skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the point.

"If you have a radio we could at least get us some Apache gunships or anything that has big guns and lots of bullets than China has rice," Williams said.

Jonas nodded, "I know where the radio is located but getting there will be the problem," he said.

"With the dead coming in through the front, I will have to take another way out which happens to be out through the back," the Austrian continued.

Captain Williams knew what he was going to ask, "How many of my men do you need?" he asked.

"Two of your fastest and best shooters," Jonas said.

The captain then immediately singled out, Joey and Caparzo.

"You are to follow this man to the other building to retrieve a radio," the captain told both rangers who nodded.

000

Sergeant Ramirez came in to join the rangers soaking wet after being in the rain, it was no longer dark the building when he came back in as the darkness was now being lit by muzzle flash and grenade fire.

"Nice of you to join Ramirez," Vasquez one of the 3 rangers on the fourth floor said when he saw the sergeant coming in.

"Had a nice swim," he joked as he fired at the dead below.

Vasquez then turned to Ramirez who was still standing there, "Need an invitation, come on grab a seat and shoot something," he said as he reloaded his rifle before continuing on the assault.

000

"What the hell is that noise?" James asked no one particular as he and the others emerge out of the underground train tunnel and were now on the streets.

"We're getting closer, come on let's pick up the pace," Buster said as he jogged ahead of everyone else.

Something came up behind them very fast, "Watch out," Axe shouted as he pushed Takashi out of the way only to be tackled down to the ground by a Gollum.

Before it could slash his throat open, the AFO member pulled out his sidearm and shot it through the head bagging his 2nd Gollum kill of the day.

More Gollum's approached from behind and they couldn't fight them all off not when they're only source of light is their flashlight and is limited.

"Run!" Tombstone said as he threw a grenade at the approaching Gollum's.

'_Is it just me or this starting to feel like Resident Evil,' _Takashi thought to himself as he ran behind the rest pushing Kohta at the same time.

000

Elsewhere, the other half of the AFO, and SDF team too were closing in on their objective.

"Sounds like the party has started and without us too," Panther said he and the others jogged to cover more ground.

The wind and the rain didn't stop them from trying to get to their objective.

"Damn this bloody rain," Smoke cursed getting back up after he fell.

The others jogged pass him as he kept on cursing about the rain and about the cold.

"Come on Smoke or you're gonna get left behind as smoke should be!" Beast shouted back at him laughing after that.

Smoke didn't take kindly to that even though he knew Beast was just kidding, "You want me to catch up fine I'll catch up," he said as he ran behind the others.

000

"General Reigart one of our UAV's caught this, monitor 3," A technician told the general as he brought monitor 3 up.

It showed a large number of undead in front of a building with gunfire coming out of it, "Are the rangers in that building?" he asked the tech.

"Yes sir," the tech answered.

Colonel Rodway was next to him, "Do we tell the secretary?" he asked.

Avery just shook his head no.

Looking at the monitor, he saw how the ranger's defense was slowly falling apart, "They need airstrike and they need it now, roll in strike package bravo on enemy, get the Chinooks fueled and ready," the general ordered as he left the room.

The colonel followed from behind, "Where are you going sir?" he asked.

Reigart didn't look back as he told Rodway what was going through his mind, "I'm going to brief the rest of the rangers and I'm going to lead this mission myself, the secretary may have sent those men in but they are in Japan so they are my responsibility," he said.

The rangers were in a hangar waiting for their orders, "Officer on deck," one of them said seeing the general approaching.

"At ease men," the general said.

Standing in front of them all, "Gentlemen I know most of you probably don't want to go back out there and I don't blame you if you don't, we are fighting a war with an enemy that you and I both thought only existed in George A Romero movies, an enemy that is ruthless, cold and determined to wipe us out, an enemy that is only driven by one purpose and one purpose only and that is to feed," he said.

"I wouldn't be standing in front of you if I didn't have confidence in your ability to succeed, I know none of you have had any hands on experience in this type of situation then again none of us have faced such a situation, right now at least half a 30 or more or less rangers are trapped within a building, their ammunition running low and their defenses slowly crumbling, god knows what's going to happen to those men should the gunships arrive too late so I ask you, will you come with me and get our brothers back?" he said finishing his speech.

"Ho-Ah," the rangers cried out in unison.

A smile slowly appeared on the generals face, "Lock n Load, let's move out!" he said as the rangers scrambled to get ready.

"I'm coming too," Colonel Rodway said already having his weapon and gear.

Shaking his head, "Oh no, no, no, Jimmy I need you here to watch over the base while I'm gone," he said.

Rodway just chuckled, "With all due respect general, you're a lousy shot and you're going to need someone to watch your back while we're out there," he said.

A technician came running into the hangar towards the general soaking wet as he had ran in the rain, "General, the apaches they've been-" he pant out.

"Calm down son, take a deep breath and tell me about the Apaches," Avery told the tech.

Doing as the general told him too, he managed to catch his breath, "Sir, the Apaches, they've been called to Osaka to assist our forces there, but the Chinooks can still fly with or without Apache cover," he said.

"Is that all you've come to tell me?" Reigart asked putting on his body armor.

Shaking his head, "No sir, but how are you going to assist the trapped rangers without the apaches, the Chinooks have fire power but it's not enough," he said.

The general just pointed towards the rangers who were ready and waiting on the general to say the word.

"We've got them, Wars are fought with guns but they are won by men," he quoted Patton as he got his weapon that was handed to him by Jimmy.

The tech nodded, "Good luck General Reigart and Colonel Rodway and god be with you all the way till you come back," he said before giving saluting both men.

Both the general and the colonel returned the salute.

The general stood before the 30 men that stood before him all waiting.

"Let's move out," the general said as he began running towards the Chinook followed by the colonel then the rangers.

000

"Oh my god," James said as he saw the number of the dead outside the building where the rangers were surrounded.

All of them stood there in disbelief, never before have they seen so many in one place.

"This is Babylon?" Akira asked.

"More like the fall of it," Axe said as checked how much ammo he had left.

"What's the plan Buster?" James asked the AFO leader.

Buster just stood there quietly as he took out his binoculars and started looking around the area.

"I see'em," He suddenly said after locating Beast and his team.

'_Beast and the others are on the other side, now the question is how are we going to get there?' _the AFO leader thought.

"Sir, 2o'clock," Axe said pointing in the direction.

There were 3 men running across the field towards the building facing theirs.

"Sir, what about the rangers?" Tombstone asked Buster.

Buster stood there quietly before speaking, "Every explosive you can spare, take'em out now, we're moving in shortly," he said.

000

"I don't see them," Beast said as he looked around the area with his binoculars.

Beast radio suddenly squawked, _"Beast bout time you showed up," _Busters voice spoke on the other end.

Keying in his throat mic, Beast responded, _'Buster what's your position?" _he asked.

"_We're at the church you see us," _Buster told him as Beast took out his binoculars and looked for the church till he saw Buster waving at him from the distance at the church entrance.

"_What's the plan B?" _Beast asked.

It was quiet for a while before Buster responded, "_How many explosives do you and your team have?" _he asked.

"_Enough, I guess," _Beast answered.

"_Good, here's the plan," _Buster started telling Beast about his plan.

000

The time was 8.35 as two flights of Chinook helicopters were approaching Tokonosu.

"Dear lord, we give thanks for the opportunities you've given us, going in as comrades to defend the human race, we thank you for the time and service that you have given us together, amen," A rangers prayed.

The general sat down silently as the green light lit the inside of the helicopter.

"Gentlemen, we'll be setting down 8 clicks from LZ Haley which puts us downtown," the pilot announced over the PA as the green light went red.

One ranger pulled out a photo which showed a little boy and a blonde haired woman smiling.

"Your wife," The general asked as he was sitting down next to the ranger.

The ranger shook his head, "Girlfriend sir," he told the general.

"But I am thinking of proposing after all this," the ranger added.

The general smiled as he thought, _"Whole worlds gone to hell but the only thing keeping it from going any deeper is love."_

"What's your name son?" Reigart asked.

"Doyle, Sir Jeremy Doyle," the ranger answered.

Reigart nodded as a crew chief approached him and handed him something, "It's a GPS tracker sir should you get lost," he told him.

The general thanked him as he returned to manning the guns.

"My god," a ranger to the general's left said after looking out the small circular window of the Chinook.

The beach of Tokonosu was in flames even in the rain the fire didn't seem to stop burning.

"Gentlemen, 2 minutes out," the pilot announced.

The rangers passed out the two sign to the ones that sat next to them.

"1 minute," the pilot announced again as the rangers passed the 1 sign.

The Chinook banked left as the pilot now switched to his night vision goggles to find a landing spot.

"Damn, there's hardly any space to land a Chinooks here," the pilot said as he couldn't find a spot.

The co-pilot then spoke, "We're going to have to do a fast rope infil," he said.

The pilot nodded as he flew his helicopter atop of a building and hovered there, "They can fast rope down here then make their way down to the streets," he said.

"Winds are little choppy but we're going to have to risk it," the co-pilot said as the pilot steadied the helicopter.

The co-pilot then announced, "Gentlemen, we are unable to find a landing spot so I'm afraid we're gonna have to do a fast infil," he said as the ramp open and one of the crew chief threw the rope down.

The rangers got up from their seats, with the Colonel being in the front.

The second Chinook hovered above another building next to the building where the first Chinook hovered.

The rangers deployed as the gunners covered them from the helicopter.

"Think we'll ever see the end of this," the co-pilot asked the pilot.

The pilot took a deep breath before letting go, "Everything that has a beginning has an end," he said as the last two rangers fast roped.

The second chopper left the area once it finished dropping the rangers.

"_Warlock 6, Dragon 1, we are RTB_," the second Chinook pilot spoke through inflight coms.

The pilot of the first Chinook nodded, _"Roger Dragon 1, see you back at base," _he said once the crew chief detached the ropes before the co-pilot closed the ramp.

Contacting the rangers,_ "Rhino 5-2, Warlock 6, we are RTB, good luck gentlemen," _the pilot said.

The helicopter turned left before flying away.

"Alright, midtown is 8 clicks in this direction, we got a lot ground to cover so let's get move on," The general said as he opened the door of the roof entrance.

000

"Alright, Takashi you that oil tanker there about 650 yards to the left of that building with no dead swarming on the outside?"Buster asked.

"Yes," Takashi answered nodding at the same time.

"Good, you're going to plant the explosives there, and once you're clear i'm gonna blow the explosions going to draw them away," Buster said pointing at the dead, "And give us enough time to evac the rangers, now Beast is going to meet you halfway and assist you he's going to plant his bombs somewhere further from yours and once I blow mine when you're clear of course and the dead are heading for you then he'll blow his which will most likely kill half of them once their in range of the explosion of course and send the other half flying through the air before landing on their ass or head whichever way their facing," The lieutenant finished his explanation of his plan.

"Is that it?" Takashi asked.

Buster nodded, "Yeah, it's simple and easy to remember," he said.

000

"Make a barricade," Foley ordered the rangers thinking it might buy them some time.

The 1st floor was lost, Jonas and two others were on their way back to the building where two of his own barely made it out.

"You heard the man, stack the chairs and tables up, the rest of you provide cover fire for the others while they do their thing," Patterson said.

Everything was in slow motion around Patterson, in those few brief seconds he saw it all, the terror in the eyes of his comrades.

He saw Private Miller, heavily wounded yet he fought.

Patterson remembered their last conversation, "The only thing I would hate to have on my tombstone is _He went down without a fight."_

Loading an explosive round into his m203, Miller aimed it out the window down at the dead trying to get in.

"Fuck you," he said as he pulled the trigger.

000

"_Ballroom, Gunslinger 11, boys on the ground are alright we are RTB," _Female pilot of an AH-64 apache gunship informed.

"_Roger Gunslinger 11,a hot shower and a cup of coffee await you," _Ballroom said.

Chuckling, "_Sounds good Ballroom, Gunslinger 11 and 16 are RTB, see you boys in 30," _the pilot said.

"_Glorious day Gunslinger 11, glorious day," _Gunslinger 16 started to converse with the pilots in 11.

The pilot in 11 call sign, _Beauty_ smiled even though her wingmen couldn't see it before responding, _"A zombie apocalypse isn't so bad after all, at least they don't have any AA's on their side," _she said.

"_You got that right Beauty," _Gunslinger 16 said.

Then something caught the eyes of the pilots in 16, _"Uh heads up guys Guardian is inbound,"_ he told 11 as an AC-130 gunships flew over them.

"_Whoa, that was pretty close don't you think?" _16's co-pilot said.

The pilot of 16 call sign _Snake eyes _nodded.

"_Gunslinger flight, Guardian, sorry about that, we had a little problem with the night vision," _Guardian contacted them.

11 then responded to their transmission, _"It's okay Guardian part of it was our fault as well," _Beauty said.

"_Well, see you back at base Gunslinger, Guardian out," _Guardian responded before ending communication.

"_Let's head back to base and get ourselves a hot cup of Joe," _Snake eyes said over the radio which was met with the approval of the other 3 pilots.


End file.
